She toldLiverpool Magistrates’ Court she was subjected to a 60-minute tirade of abuse by the couple because on March 20, the final day of her stay with them, she decided to wear a hijab head-covering and gown.

Mrs Tazi, who converted to Islam 18 months ago, spent a month at The Bounty House Hotel on Church Avenue, Aintree, while attending a four-week pain management course at The Walton Centre at Aintree Hospital.

The Liverpool hoteliers,who allegedly told Mrs Tazi the hijab was "a form of bondage" and Mohammed was a warlord, will stand trial.

The couple, whose defence is backed by the Christian Institute, deny a charge, made under the 1986 Public Order Act, of using threatening, abusive or insulting words which were religiously aggravated.

Prosecutor Anya Horwood told the court that Benjamin Vogelenzang, 53, called the prophet Mohammed a ``warlord'' and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler.

He and his 54-year-old wife told Mrs Tazi, who has two grown up sons, that her Islamic dress represented "oppression" and was a form of "bondage", the court heard.

Ms Horwood said that a row flared when Mrs Tazi, who had worn European dress during her four-week stay, came down on the morning she was due to leave dressed in traditional Islamic dress.

She said Benjamin Vogelenzang asked her: "’Why are you wearing those clothes’ and began laughing at her. She explained to him it was important to her.

"He started to discuss his faith, he is a Christian, and the role Jesus played in both their religions.

"He became angry and was shouting at her and at that point Sharon Vogelenzang joined in. She was saying that the clothes she was wearing represented oppression and bondage."

Ms Horwood said Mrs Tazi walked into the dining room but was followed by Benjamin Vogelenzang who was like "a whirling dervish".

She said: "He was agitated and upset and began repeatedly asking her was she a terrorist, was she a murderer like Mohammed?

"Ericka Tazi kept asking him to stop and he became more agitated, saying Mohammed was a warlord and likened Mohammed to Saddam Hussein and Hitler.

"She asked the couple to stop insulting her. She tried to explain again how important her faith was.

"At that point Sharon Vogelenzang pointed her finger in her face, shouting, saying she had provoked this because of wearing the gown."

Mrs Tazi came to court dressed in a hijab and gown and using a walking stick. She swore an oath on the Koran and kissed the holy book before giving evidence to the prosecutor.

She told the court that dressing in the hijab seemed to "trigger something" in Benjamin Vogelenzang and that she had found the episode extremely traumatic.

Mrs Tazi, who suffers from fibromyalgia and lives with chronic pain, said: "He just couldn’t accept the way I was dressed.

"He was laughing at me and it seemed to trigger something, I don’t know why, I kept saying ’I’m Ericka’, it was my outfit that had triggered him.

"He asked me if I was a murderer, if I was a terrorist. I’m a 60-year-old disabled woman, I couldn’t understand where it was coming from, it was shocking to me."

Mrs Tazi said the couple told her that her dress was bondage. She told the court: "I was on this journey of being a convert, it was my decision, I couldn’t be in bondage if it was my decision."

She said: "He followed me into the dining room and he was jumping up and down. I’ve never seen anything like it, his arms were flailing.

"Sharon came running in, she was shouting ’you started this with your dress’ and she was pointing in my face and I was frightened at this stage. I was absolutely traumatised by it all.

"I kept putting my hand up saying ’please stop it’. I just wanted to get out. If I had had the legs to run I would have run out of that hotel."

She said she told the couple she had been a Christian and that "I’ve always had God in my life" and had once been a member of the Catholic Legion of Mary.

Mrs Tazi contacted the police that night. When questioned by detectives the couple said they had been sharing their ``faith views''.

The court heard that Sharon Vogelenzang told officers she did not mean to be disrespectful when she referred to the hijab as bondage.

She said she was entitled to respond when her faith was challenged and that she was merely expressing her opinions.

Benjamin Vogelenzang said he had referred to historical figures, but not Mohammed, and had not meant to be offensive or insulting.

Mrs Tazi told Hugh Tomlinson QC, for the defence, that she was not trying to make a statement by wearing the hijab and denied having robust arguments about religion with other guests during her stay.

She told him her father and grandfather had fought in both world wars and said: "I love my country, I thought I had the freedom to wear what I wanted to wear."

Mrs Tazi said she had thought the Vogelenzangs were a "genteel couple" until the incident.

She said she tried "many religions" before converting to Islam when she married.

Mrs Tazi said: "My journey has been a long, long journey, it was a very difficult decision to wear these clothes... I’m a normal Warrington girl who liked the Beatles.

"I had a different life before and I’m proud. My hijab is part of my faith, it’s in the Koran."

Guests at the hotel told the court that Mrs Tazi was left distraught by the row.

Pauline Tait, 52, a committed Christian, told Mr Tomlinson that the row was "a very upsetting and volatile exchange".

She said Benjamin Vogelenzang seemed frustrated and animated rather than angry and "was on his soapbox".

Shirley Tait said she was in her bedroom when she heard Benjamin Vogelenzang shouting the words ’nazi’ and ’warlord’. She told Mr Tomlinson: "It was very heated".

Mrs Tait said she came downstairs and saw a red-faced and angry Benjamin Vogelenzang shaking his fist.

She said she tried to calm down her weeping friend, who kept saying: "’It’s started already, it’s started already’."

Mrs Tait said she took this to mean that Mrs Tazi was experiencing abuse for her decision to wear the hijab.

She said: "At one stage I thought she was going to pass out she was crying so much."

Jeanette Hendry, the ambulance driver who took the hotel guests to the hospital every day, said in a statement read to the court that Mrs Tazi planned to wear her hijab on the final day as a celebration.

She said: "I told her she looked lovely. She looked at me and burst out crying. She was visibly distressed and she was shaking and crying, she was saying, ’I’m still Ericka, I’m still Ericka’.

"She told me that Sharon and Ben had been skitting her."

Supporters of the Vogelenzangs from The Christian Institute demonstrated outside the court this morning by singing songs.

The case was adjourned until 10am at Liverpool Magistrates Court tomorrow.